Description

Kimberly Nichele Brown examines how African American women since the 1970s have found ways to move beyond the "double consciousness" of the colonized text to develop a healthy subjectivity that attempts to disassociate black subjectivity from its connection to white culture. Brown traces the emergence of this new consciousness from its roots in the Black Aesthetic Movement through important milestones such as the anthology The Black Woman and Essence magazine to the writings of Angela Davis, Toni Cade Bambara, and Jayne Cortez.

Author Bio

Kimberly Nichele Brown is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Africana Studies Program at Texas A&M University.

Reviews

“Traces the emergence of African American women moving beyond the "double consciousness" of the colonized text to develop a healthy subjectivity that attempts to disassociate black subjectivity from its connection to white culture.”

“The revolutionary divas in these works represent a response to the 'black woman as victim' argument that informs so much discussion of black women's subjectivity. [These] women writers emerge from the black folk experience not just as its representatives, but as an embodiment of its potential.”
— Alice A. Deck, University of Illinois

“Displays a richness and depth seldom seen in literary criticism these days.”
— Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Indiana University Bloomington

“Kimberly Brown’s sweeping critical attention to the crucial, body-political texts of academically unappreciated marvels such as Jayne Cortez and Toni Cade Bambara could not be more welcome. This uncowed return to the thematics of decolonization is vital—what Black Studies and Black worlds need now more than ever with the world at large.”
— Greg Thomas, author of The Sexual Demon of Colonial Power and Hip-Hop Revolution in the Flesh

“Writing the Black Revolutionary Diva is a lovely book. Brown manages to reinvigorate common notions like wellness, healing, recovery, and pain with the kind of critical rigor that makes them useful in cultural studies but refuses to burden them with unnecessary complexity. . . . Writing the Black Revolutionary Diva and its ideas will be instructive for a very long time to come.
”
— Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature

“Brown's work is one of the most thorough studies and critiques of black women's writing to date. September, 2011”
— H-1960s

Customer Reviews

Table of Contents

<FMO>Contents<\>Acknowledgments

Prelude1. From Soul Cleavage to Soul Survival: Double-Consciousness and the Emergence of the Decolonized Text/Subject2. "Who Is the Black Woman?": Repositioning the Gaze and Reconstructing Images in The Black Woman: An Anthology and Essence Magazine3. Constructing Diva Citizenship: The Enigmatic Angela Davis as Case Study4. Return to the Flesh: The Revolutionary Ideology behind the Poetry of Jayne Cortez5. She Dreams a World: The Decolonized Text and the New World Order, Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt EatersCoda: This Is Not Just about "Inward Navel-Gazing": Decolonizing My Own Mind as a Critical Stance